3DF Zephyr Beta - Road to Avocado (4.0?)

[Andrea Alessi]

Hello guys,

feel free to use this thread to discuss the current beta release for Avocado:

Changelog / Roadmap:
https://www.3dscanninghacks.com/wiki...atus_(Avocado)

Status reports:
https://www.3dflow.net/3df-zephyr-de...gress-avocado/
https://www.3dflow.net/3df-zephyr-de...ess-avocado-2/
https://www.3dflow.net/3df-zephyr-de...ess-avocado-3/

Beta access:
Please contact us at support@3dflow.net if you wish to join the beta (we'd appreciate if you could share some details about how you are going to use and test zephyr)

[aaron]

Hello,

how can I try this version? I want to use it to generate the surface of the road in order to evaluate its roughness.

[artist88mcardle]

I am very interested in trying this software for some projects. I already love the free version, so I'd love to try out the Beta and will want to contribute my experience to help developers perfect this software

[Roberto]

Hi Aaaron, Hi Artist88

I've just sent you an email with the beta keys

[dlstarbird]

HI Aaaron,
OK just open up the BETA and have the following information:

I think most users will opt to use the QUICK PROJECT menu first, I say that because most people using photogrammetry software want to push a few key and generate a 3d object. Even your own website states
"The process is completely automatic. No coded targets, manual editing or special equipment are needed. 3DF Zephyr is built on top of our proprietary, cutting-edge, reconstruction technology."

So here is the direction I think you need to follow:

User Manual

1. The User Manual needs to be rewritten, the manual address a lot of good information however the word selection is not conducive to learning- example page 16 you use the word "EXPLOIT THE MASK" this term EXPLOIT should not be used in this way - the word USED can replace the word EXPLOIT.
2. The User Manual attempts to do a step by step instructions however the step by step instructions get side-tracked when showing all the various options of the your program.
3. The manual need to be rewritten using a better format so you can showcase your software to the new user as well as the experience user.

Software
Wanting to use the COMPLETELY AUTOMATIC - I selected QUICK PROJECT and I was impressed easy interface and 60 photos took about 20 mins to render into a 3d object.
When the Quick Project was completed I the Object need to be cleanup and edited to remove unwanted parts. (REMEMBER I'm a new user and only have a couple of hours using your software.)
I knew the 3d object need to be edit so I clicked on the EDIT button and I see the sub button SELECT now I'm confused select the 3d object or another submenu? Select all - all of what? I took a risk and selected Manual Selection, however when I move my mouse I was still moving in 3d space and could not understand how to draw the box - I spent about 10 mins trying to over come this problem, and I have to add the user manual did not address my problem. Only after several mins. did the happen to see the selection box open up in the lower right and noted that the PAUSE button was high lighted.

There a lot of little issues that makes using your software the cause issues for the new user.

Please understand it's my goal to make this software and Manual very user friendly and I can't help you unless I'm open and honest about my experiences when working with your software.

[dlstarbird]

How can you export to a STL file ?

[Andrea Alessi]

Hi dlstarbird,

you need to select ".stl" as format when you export a mesh (not textured mesh).

[sam3d]

Hi Andrea

I had a crash when i was inputting constraint coordinates today; would there be a bug report of some kind? I checked the log file but didn't see anything obvious.

[Andrea Alessi]

Hi Sam,

i guess it was probably something in the interface. The log logs everything related to computations, but not much about the interface (otherwise it would be too verbose) but my guess it is probably some minor thing in the UI.

Problem is, it's harder to track

Were you inputting data manually or was it by importing a text file? Can you describe what were you doing a little bit more in detail?

I assume the crash report window didn't appear, correct?

Thank you!

[sam3d]

No crash report window appeared.

I was inputting coordinates manually (copy and pasting each X,Y, Z number from my CAD application). I tried to amend the first constraint as i'd used the wrong data and Zephyr closed down.

I'll try and repeat it later today.

[sam3d]

When i select 'Uniform colouring' all active meshes are displayed white but i normally see each mesh in a unique colour in Zepher Lite; is this a bug?

Just installed build 2018.07.05.13.05.17


Sam

[Andrea Alessi]

Hi Sam,

it's a bug, thank you for reporting it

[sam3d]

Hey Andrea,

Just a thought regarding mesh colouring - would you consider adding a coloured icon/flag to the Mesh title in the Project Tab to correspond with the respective mesh colour?

It might be useful as a quick reference when comparing multiple meshes?

[Andrea Alessi]

Hi Sam,

we opted to put this feature just in the gizmo, otherwise the project tab would become very confusing (and not elegant ) with a lot of colors.

You must :

- enable the uniform coloring option (well, it is bugged in the current beta but you get the idea. If you have 3.702, you can try it)

- use the gizmo dropdown menu. As you can notice however it makes sense for the workspace to color in a different color only unstructured items (as structured items will overlap)